


Falling

by bluestargirl6 (pressdbtwnpages)



Category: Veronica Mars (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-04-01
Updated: 2010-04-01
Packaged: 2017-10-08 14:06:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/76396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pressdbtwnpages/pseuds/bluestargirl6
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>Duncan's kind of fucked up in the way that he falls in love.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Falling

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers through 2x10. Written for the lovely [](http://maroon-notebook.livejournal.com/profile)[**maroon_notebook**](http://maroon-notebook.livejournal.com/) for **[Bad username: vm_santa 2005]**.

  
Duncan's kind of fucked up in the way that he falls in love. With his maybe-sister, with his dead-girlfriend. He's standing in front of Meg's coffin long after her parents have gone, and he wants to marry her. It's totally, completely irrational and Duncan knows that, which can only be a positive sign.

He wants to drop to one knee in front of the casket and produce a ring. He does, because no ones around, and fumbles blindly in his suit pocket, finding only a pacifier.

He's a dad now.

A dad kneeling on the floor of Neptune's most esteemed funeral parlor brandishing a binky in his hand like some kind of superhero ring and wondering when his life became a soap opera. When Lilly died? Before that? Were the Kane's always destined to have a highly dramatic story? Maybe it's the town of Neptune itself, something in the air that gets even the sanest people, Keith Mars for example, into pickles.

That's it, Duncan thinks, it's the air in Neptune. His Kane-cousins in Pittsburgh don't have this kind of drama. In Pittsburgh people's parents are their parents and people's children are their children.

Maybe Duncan should take his daughter and run far away, protect her from the crazy Neptune air. But not to Cuba, Cuba is what started everything in the first place.

Well, maybe not everything, that's probably giving Castro a bit too much credit.

Anyway, Duncan came home from Cuba and Meg jumped into his arms and kissed him and said she missed him and not quite nine months later, Duncan is a father and Meg is dead.

Now there's a fairytale for the ages. One he won't be rocking his child to sleep with.

Duncan has all these plans for a little girl he's never even been alone with, one he's hardly ever even thought about until she was delivered into his mother's arms a few days ago via court-order.

She came named, Faith, a final jab from the Manning's. Duncan likes to tell himself it's what Meg would have wanted. That's what Lizzy tells him, but Lizzy has gotten good at platitude. She would probably tell him that Faith was Meg reincarnated to stay close to the last tie to her beloved older sister. Duncan would probably believe.

He's waiting patiently for Meg's visit. Lilly came, Meg will too and be more helpful than Lilly ever was. Duncan quit taking his pills again, but his mother started spiking his food with them. Duncan tried to explain about needing to talk to Meg, to figure out what to do with Faith, but it just came out sounding crazy. Celeste chalked it up to lack of sleep and hired a night nanny.

Duncan wonders if Lilly ever haunted Celeste. Something in his mother's eyes suggests yes. The conversation Lilly must have had with her makes Duncan shudder with morbid curiosity. He hopes Lilly is taking good care of Meg up there, being gentle. They were friends once. His sister and the woman he loved. Loves.

He's still kneeling, wielding baby paraphernalia. Someone will come in soon and retrieve him, they always do. Taking care of poor lost Duncan. He's a parent now though, and does being a dad mean he's no longer a son?

His grandparents always treat his dad like an adult, although, Jake owns their house so it's an entirely different situation. That, and he wasn't 17 when Lilly was born.

Duncan's parents are being surprisingly cool, considering. Although his child-rearing adventure seems to be some sort of social experiment that will end when the baby is a few months old and Celeste graciously comes to the rescue and sweeps the child off to Napa. His child is going to be a Lilly redux. A do-over.

That terrifies Duncan. He loved Lilly, loves his parents, but god is he not going to let them fuck up another child. If his baby is going to be screwed up Duncan will be inflicting the damage himself, thanks.

This must be what being a parent is like, hopes and fears and a knot in your chest that just won't go away. Duncan would ask his mother if he weren't scared of her answer, look what she did to he and Lilly. Duncan would ask his dad if he weren't in hiding…

Duncan doesn't have the best track record, he knows. The women he loves tend to end up dead, or very emotionally damaged, or in some cases both. But he's hoping now, that with little Faith, things might just be looking up.


End file.
